On May 27, 1981, after learning there was a
default hearing concerning the bonds Mike's father had on our dead son I
went by myself to Penobscot County Superior Court. And when an attorney
neither Derald nor I knew began to argue for a reduced bail since Mike
was dead. I stood up and asked if I could choose my own attorney.
The judge agreed. The next day Bangor Daily News reporter Maureen Williams reported
the hearing and said that Mike had committed
aggravated assault.
I knew nothing about an aggravated assault until I found a State v Cochran case
on the web concerning Mike
appealing a fight he had outside a bar on Oct. 4, 1979, his
23rd birthday. The information in the appeal said assault not aggravated
assault. I looked up the
difference between aggravated assault v assault and it stated that
assault or
simple assault is when a person has clear intent to commit an assault
against another person. And aggravated assault refers to a situation in
which a person attempted to inflict serious injury without regard for
the life or well-being of the victim. The information from Mike's
appeal states assault. So why did Maureen Williams call it aggravated
assault? I had thought the bonds were for Mike's arrest for the March
1980 drug charge but it was for a fight in a bar that Cox was using to
take our home.
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